Plant under construction in January 2010

The Quarry Management Journal also published an article on this major investment and full detials can be seen on the attached link. 

Download – Hillhouse Quarry Revamp pdf

Workers from the company spent three days at the Prestwick school last week on a series of building and planting projects to breathe new life into the community garden. The first job they tackled was installing a new soakaway drainage system around the raised flower beds.

Principal teacher, Karen Blackwood said: “The winter weather and poor drainage had turned parts of the garden into a muddy mess and severely restricted its use by the children.”

The men have also installed a new ramp to provide disabled access for other groups from the local community, cleared weeds and dead plants and planted up dozens of new shrubs.

Karen said: “We are extremely grateful to Land Engineering, Hillhouse Quarry and R&A Muir for their kind donation of materials and time to transform the garden. The parent council raised £1000 in funding from South Ayrshire Council, with Land Engineering support this has been worth so much more.”

Originally built in 2008 with funding and help from GE Caledonian, NATS and the school’s parent council, the garden is now back looking its best and Karen is sure that pupils, staff and parents will be keen to keep it in tip-top order.

She said: “We plan to involve the children more in its upkeep and the raised beds will be used to plant flowers and vegetables. Gardening really is a wonderful way to enhance the children’s knowledge of the outdoors, nature and the environment. Thanks to the new drainage system, it’s muddy boots no more!”

At the beginning of 2009 the decision was taken to increase the scope of certificaton from concrete and asphalt to all product streams.

During 2009 certification to BS EN ISO 9001 was achieved for the Carnoustie and Inverness Precast business units, and Block production at the Shewalton production unit. The extension to scope was concluded on the 21st January 2010 with the addition of aggregate production at Hillhouse Quarry.

During 2010 Hillhouse Quarry Group will be working towards BS EN ISO 14001 and anticipates accreditation to the standard in December.

The Craigengillan Fort project will be available for use by the all of the Cadet Forces.

The photograph shows a 1.7 tonne portable cabin being lifted into position by a Sea King helicopter.

From that date the business units will incorporate the Group Identity and be rebranded as follows: –

Hillhouse Precast Concrete (Carnoustie) (HPCC)
Hillhouse Precast Concrete (Inverness) (HPCI)

It is considered that this re-branding will confirm the status of the business units as being part of the Hillhouse Quarry Group of companies.

Together with Hillhouse Precast Concrete Beith (HPCB) The Precast Concrete Products Division will offer a wide range of integrated Cast Concrete Products including prestressed hollowcore floor units, reinforced concrete stairs and landings including installation services and a wide range of architectural cast stone and decorative precast elements as well as a wide range of garden products.

In its drive to offer a wide range of quality based products, services and technical support the division is working towards accreditation to the BS EN ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System for each of the Precast Operating Units. Hillhouse Precast at Beith already has accreditation. This is part of the Hillhouse Quarry Group plan to implement an Integrated Management System across all the group’s businesses.

Councillor Tom Cook, local member for Kilmarnock West and Crosshouse said: “Hillhouse Quarry, through their Corporate Social Responsibility Programme, donated £1,000 to the community of Crosshouse for the benefit of young people. I worked closely with Hillhouse Quarry and the local community to identify a suitable project and the playpark was clearly the most worthwhile.

“Thanks to the donation the Council has recently installed new fencing, a gate and dog grid. This has greatly improved the playpark for our young people. I would like to thank Hillhouse Quarry for their generosity.”

Councillor Douglas Reid, local member for Kilmarnock West and Crosshouse said: ““The Council has a detailed playpark improvement programme which is reviewed and updated on an annual basis. Officers from the Council also perform weekly condition checks of playpark equipment throughout the area to ensure they remain safe for our youngsters. However it is very heartening that companies like Hillhouse Quarry are willing to donate money to benefit our young people.”

Councillor Iain Linton, local member for Kilmarnock West and Crosshouse said: “Hillhouse Quarry recognises that their activities have an impact on the village due to vehicles movements and wished to put something back into the community to benefit local youngsters. Their donation was put to good use by the Council and the playpark was been made safer thanks to their donation.”

A £5.1m Queens Gate Housing Project which provides the first “eco-friendly” homes in Clydebank.  This landmark building with its curved façade and high quality external appearance is also the first social housing in Clydebank for 5 years.

There are 40 one or two bedroom apartments over 4 storeys for social rent for Clydebank Housing Association.  The development was officially opened by the culture minister Michael Russell MSP on 31^st August 2009.

The project was managed by Campbell Construction Group, and was sited on a one-acre vacant site, previously owned by West Dumbartonshire Council.  All homes have been designed to a top eco-rating with high insulation, energy efficient fittings and heating, low CO2 emissions; waste recycling facilities, sustainable sourced building materials and customised glazed balconies.

Hillhouse supplied 2,940m² of prestressed hollowcore floor slabs to form a Composite Floor Slab and 52m³ of reinforced concrete staircases and landing units all designed to BS8110 structural use of concrete.

Hillhouse had a complete sub-contract package for the design, manufacture and erection of the concrete flooring, stairs and landing units for this project ensuring all deliveries, haulage and craneage were co-ordinated to meet the fast track contract programme.

Hillhouse Precast delivered all precast concreted components on time and on budget, enabling quick build on this project.  The production facilities at the Beith factory ensured both the high standard of product and delivery performance.

 South Ayrshire Engineers visited the quarry and hand selected the 35 pieces of Armour rock needed for their water feature, these pieces ranged from 2 Tonne up to just over 5 Tonne in weight.

A picture of the new reception is shown above on the website banner.

During November and December 2005 Hillhouse Quarry supplied RJ McLeod (Contractors) Ltd. over 1500m3 of concrete to this project.

The project consisted of erecting 6 wind turbines capable of supplying enough energy for 13000 homes. The site for these turbines was the Wardlaw Wood hill 3 miles North West of Dalry.

Each Turbine required 250m3 of pumped, reinforced concrete for its foundation. This was to be supplied at a rate of 60m3 Per Hour to this remote location (300m altitude) along 3Km of site access roads. Using  Dalry Concrete Plant, supplemented by Troon Concrete Plant, 10 Truck mixers supplied 250m3 of 40N Pump Mix to each turbine base over 6 pours.